Downtown Chicago with the Reeves

This is posted a little out of order, but last Wednesday I took the Reeves (Ben's sister and family) on the el train and into downtown Chicago. Ben had to work, so it was Heather, Rob, and me with the five kids. We got all kinds of funny comments when we would walk into a store - you really don't see many families walking around with that many kids ages 8 and under in Chicago.

We went up to the top floor of the Hancock Building and saw the great views, then spent lots of time at the American Girl store. The girls had such a fabulous time seeing the dolls and getting the whole experience there. It was pretty crowded and I feel bad because I didn't take a picture! Oh well. We stopped in a few other stores along Michigan Avenue, including the Disney store - here is Eli playing with a soccer ball and a huge Bolt stuffed animal. He would carry Bolt around, talking to him and showing him other toys. It was pretty funny.

We also spent a good chunk of time at the Lego store - it has all kinds of cool displays made out of Legos, like this huge spider:

And this giraffe (here's Rob holding Hannah in front of the store):
Here's Eli in front of Santa and a lego display (he loves saying "Santa!")
Here we are with R2D2 made out of legos:
Abbie and Emma in front of a Lego version of the Hancock Building:
Hannah, Emma, and Eli playing at one of the lego tables - they had so much fun playing with these:
Outside the store, the Reeves family posing with the lego man:

Me and Eli with lego man:

Later we walked down to Millenium Park and saw the "Bean" - Abbie and Emma had fun running under it:

Eli watching the people ice skating at Millenium Park:

Me and Eli in front of the Bean:

We were gone the entire day, and finally made it home a little before 6 p.m. I was SO tired and the kids were cold, but all in all it was a fun day in the city. I will say, it's stressful keeping track of that many little kids in the crowded downtown area! They were all really good though and it was fun to show them some of the sights. I even ran into a few people that I knew at some of the stores, which was pretty random in such a big city!

Today was low-key... we went to church in the morning, had a big lunch when we came home, then Eli and I took naps while Ben and the Reeves drove out to see the temple. There was some difficulty because Ben forgot his keys and I had locked the doors after they left. When they came home, rang the doorbell and tried calling the phone, I was so sound asleep that I heard none of it!! (and amazingly it didn't wake up Eli either) The phone was turned off upstairs and I had my bedroom door closed, but I can't believe I didn't hear the doorbell ringing. They ended up going over to Northwestern's campus so the girls could use the bathroom and to see Ben's old building, where they tried calling again - this time, I woke up to the very soft sound of the phone ringing downstairs and checked the voice mail.

Tonight after we put the younger kids to bed, we hung out in my craft room in the basement (more like a craft cave - it's pretty small, but I have space for two tables and lots of shelves filled with paper/cardmaking supplies - I love this room!!). Abbie and Emma had a blast using my paper punches and other tools to make pictures, cards, hats, etc. They are the sweetest kids and both made me the nicest cards today. It's a treat to get to spend time with them!

It's Been a Long Week...

...and it's only Wednesday morning! Yesterday was the epitomy of bad days - Eli cried for the first two hours that he was awake, I think because his teeth were bothering him. Thankfully, he took a morning nap, and then we were able to get together with some friends to help snap us both out of our bad moods.

We came home for the afternoon nap, and after Eli woke up, he cried and cried and cried - so much that he threw up what he had eaten for lunch all over me. I hurried and cleaned up the mess on both of us and the floor, then we raced out the door to pick up Ben from the train so we could make our appointment to see a house with our realtor.

Once I was at this house, I was so depressed by its tiny size and high price. The outside of the house is darling, set on a quiet cobblestone street surrounded by other pretty houses, but not right for us. Later I checked out a large condo for rent. I'll probably look at more rentals this week as we try to figure out what our short-term plan should be.

And right now, I'm hoping Eli will be able to take a much-needed morning nap while the woman above us is stomping around (it seriously makes the light fixture in my room shake when she walks above me). UGH!!! Why are some people such loud walkers??

Eli the Light Sleeper, Part 2

I am still frustrated with Eli's random sleeping patterns. He is still waking up around 5:45 a.m. every morning. Last night I met some friends for dinner in a suburb north of here, so it took a while to get out there, have dinner, and come back home. I put Eli to bed at 8:30 p.m. (he's normally in bed by 7:30 at the latest) and really hoped he would sleep at least until 6:30 a.m.! But no. He was up at 5:45, crying and fussing, wanting to get out of his crib and eat.

And to backtrack - yesterday morning, he was up early, then took more than a 3-hour morning nap, and then wouldn't take an afternoon nap. He fell asleep on our long drive to the restaurant, but he didn't get the same amount of sleep that he normally would in one day.

This morning, he was down for his morning nap, so I had the regular phones turned off and my cell was on vibrate, sitting next to the t.v. My mom called to ask for directions, and my vibrating cell phone woke Eli up. Even with the sound machine going in his room! He is the LIGHTEST sleeper!

Here we are at 6 a.m. this morning - I had to use my flash because it was still DARK outside.
On a totally different note... I am having Nikon withdrawal! These pictures were taken w/ my compact dig. camera because I am getting my camera cleaned - it still had tiny sand particles in there from our Florida trip...

I'm sad b/c the guy at Ritz initially told me it would only take 2 weeks (they send it out to a lab for cleaning), but then the manager just told me it could be up to 6 weeks!! This is all covered in my warranty, but that's a long time to be without the camera.

*I promise my next post won't be such a downer :)

Sleep Associations - HELP!

I an official victim of letting my baby nurse to sleep. I guess I should take more responsibility rather than call myself a victim, but I really feel like it just snuck up on me! And now Eli is 4 months+ and having a really tough time getting on a better sleep/wake schedule... his pediatrician (Dr. Andy) says Eli should just eat when he wakes up, then play for two hours, then sleep for one hour, and start the cycle all over again (this is for daytime).

However, I tried this yesterday afternoon, and Eli screamed for two hours (I went in many times trying to calm him down without nursing, and that didn't help anything). Eventually, I ruined those two hours of working with him to fall asleep and finally fed him (by then he genuinely seemed hungry...?) and he slept for an hour and a half. Yes, I cheated!! And then was mad at myself for doing that. He was so tired still that he went to sleep at 6 p.m. and slept until 5 a.m. today...

Which brings me to today's morning nap struggle. Usually if Eli wakes up between 5-5:30 a.m., he will eat and go right back to sleep. It's like his one remaining feeding in the night. And then he'll sleep until 7 or 7:30 a.m. and the day will begin. However, today he woke at 5 a.m. and was very hungry. I expected him to fall back asleep, so I put him back in his crib, but he made noises for about 30 minutes, and those noises escalated into fussiness and I eventually picked him up.

At 7 a.m., I decided it was time for his first nap since he had now been awake for two hours. I changed his diaper, read some books, sang a song, and put him in his crib. He cried after about 2 seconds of being in there. I let him cry for five minutes, but it was quickly escalating into what it sounded like yesterday afternoon when he was beyond reason and not falling asleep. I went in, turned on his mobile, patted him on the tummy and talked to him, then went out of the room again. Still no luck. I waited 10 minutes this time, and he was crying so hard. An hour went by, with me going in periodically, trying to calm him down, etc. His poor eyes were so red and his face was wet from all of his tears. Not fun.

By 8 a.m., I picked him up (because now it had been 3 hours since he ate last), fed him (while talking to him the entire time to keep him awake, but he was fading fast), and kept talking to him while I put him in his crib so he would at least be awake for a minute. He went right to sleep. Day 2 of failing to implement the correct sleep/wake cycle.

So here are my questions... was he just screaming because he was starving (after not eating all night long and just eating at 5 a.m.?)? Was I a pushover for eventually feeding him? Should I feel guilty for letting him cry SO hard? And how do you change a baby's eating patterns so they only eat when they wake up? I'm calling Dr. Andy in a little while for some doctorly advice but there are lots of you out there who have already trained your kids to sleep the right way... any tips??